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Politics Republican

Nate Silver – The Abusers… sorry… The Republicans Will Win The Senate

We are like an abused spouse. We say that this time would be the last. We will not put up with this anymore. But our abusers apologies and promise never to do it again, so… here we go again, living in fear with our abuser knowing that one day, we will once again be abused.

We are too weak to change the situation. Change it seems, is scary. So we put up with our abusers the Republicans and will apparently vote for them in November.

Nate Silver has gained respect from both sides if the political aisle because his predictions are usually spot on. Nate is predicting that our political abusers will once again promise not to abuse us, and like abused fools, we will give them another chance.

Nate’s March forecast projected a Republicans gain of 5.8 seats. You’ll no doubt notice the decimal place; how can a party win a fraction of a Senate seat? It can’t, but our forecasts are probabilistic; a gain of 5.8 seats is the total you get by summing the probabilities from each individual race. Because 5.8 seats is closer to six (a Republican takeover) than five (not quite), we characterized the GOP as a slight favorite to win the Senate.

The new forecast is for a Republican gain of 5.7 seats. So it’s shifted ever so slightly — by one-tenth of a seat — toward being a toss-up. Still, if asked to place a bet at even odds, we’d take a Republican Senate.

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Politics

Members of Fox News Now Denouncing Their Network’s Coverage of Bergdahl

I don’t think they got the memo. Apparently, Juan Williams and Shep Smith were not aware that a smear campaign was on the way against a member of the military, Army Sargent Bowe Bergdahl, who was recently released as a prisoner of war after being held in captivity by the Taliban for five years.

Earlier this month, Shep Smith expressed his displeasure about the way his network and the Republicans were attacking the soldier.

“If you desert or commit treason, you have to be proved to have done so. We can’t just decide because some people come on television and yakety yak, and we’ve got a report of this and a report of that and that’s what happened. As the Army said, as the Pentagon said, you bring them home. You bring them home first, and then you investigate.”

And now, Juan Williams is doing the same. In a recent broadcast, Williams spoke his mind on the unfair malicious defamation of everything Bergdahl that Fox and the Republicans are perusing.

“You don’t make judgements at the opportunity to bring that young man home….But the idea is we don’t leave people in the enemy’s hands. The enemy saw him as an American soldier. This young man suffered. He was caged, Chris. His parents suffered. And yet people want to argue about the father’s beard. They want to say they shouldn’t have a parade. Let the military decide. The military is best positioned not us sitting here on this panel and not all the political people on the Republican side who have flip-flopped, flip-flopped, Chris in the most craven way. Unbelievable…”

Glimmers of hope from these two on a stinking [or sinking] ship that is The Fox. Hopefully they’ll jump ship before they’re pulled to the bottom by all the venom the rest of the cast spews!

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Entertainment

Amazing – Man Interviews His Guinea Pig – Video

No words for this one. The Guinea Pig says it all…

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Politics Republican

Republicans Eating Their Own – Reports that Bergdahl’s Dad is A Republican

So is this a story of Republicans eating their own because they think president Obama would be negatively affected?

You betcha!

The Daily Beast is reporting that Robert Bergdahl, the father of recently released prisoner of war, Bowe Bergdahl, is a Republican.

In June 2010, Robert Bergdahl, the father of released American POW Bowe Bergdahl, gave a speech at an Idaho Republican Party fundraiser. In one of his first public appearances during his son’s five-year captivity, he asked the conservative audience to show compassion for his son’s captors—and, in a twist that foretold the plot of Homeland—he alleged that the United States had killed one of those captor’s children with a drone strike

The Idaho fundraiser was an election year event, and the day’s other speakers—Idaho Senator Jim Risch, then-national-party-chairman Michael Steele, radio host Dennis Prager, and a belligerent stand-up comic named Eric Golub—took the usual shots at President Obama and rallied partisans to donate money to November’s cause.

Pass the salt.

Fox News and the Republicans have been on a feeding frenzy. They have jumped all over this one, knives and forks on hand, banging on the table, accusing Robert of being a Taliban, a Muslim sympathizer, even accusing the man of looking like a Muslim because he refused to cut his beard in protest of his son’s capture.

These people are devouring their own in an attempt to make the president look bad. Can you say ‘sick losers?’

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Featured Politics

Las Vegas Shooters Tied To Bundy Ranch Militias

There was another shooting over the weekend, this time, in Las Vagas. The shooting left two police officers dead, one customer at a Walmart dead and the two suspects dead.

According to reports, a couple brought their lovable, harmless guns to a restaurant in Las Vegas and used those guns to kill two police officers who were doing the unthinkable – having lunch.

After using the guns on the officers, the couple walked over to a Walmart store and killed a woman in the front of the store. The female shooter then pointed the gun at her male partner and pulled the trigger. She then turned the gun her way and took herself out.

Just another day in our gun loving civilized society.

What makes this story unique however, is the unfolding story that this couple and their harmless guns were part of the Cliven Bundy militias that swarmed the ranch a few months ago, prepared to put their women folk on the front lines in their expected shootout with the government.

The shootout didn’t happen, so apparently they’re starting one on their own.

Neighbors in an apartment complex where the two suspects lived said they “had a reputation for spouting racist, anti-government views” and boasted about their gun collection, according to the Las Vegas Sun. The newspaper reported that residents of the apartment complex who spoke about the suspects also brought up the couple’s relationship with Bundy Ranch, where the two bragged about being present for the standoff between militia members and the Bureau of Land Management.

One neighbor who lived next door to the couple told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the male suspect had said he was kicked off Bundy Ranch at some point during the militia’s protest against the BLM.

Carol Bundy, the Nevada rancher’s wife, told the newspaper she had no reason to suspect that militia members at the ranch harbored violent intentions.

“I have not seen or heard anything from the militia and others who have came to our ranch that would, in any way, make me think they had an intent to kill or harm anyone,” Bundy told the Review-Journal.

Another resident of the apartment complex, Brandon Moore, told the Las Vegas Sun that the couple had also spoken about their plans to commit a mass shooting.

“They were handing out white-power propaganda and were talking about doing the next Columbine,” he said.

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Politics Republican

Republican Nuts Target Bergdahl’s Parents with Death Threats

He signed up and volunteered to fight a war for this country in Afghanistan. And I can’t say this enough, but regardless of the circumstances surrounding his capture, Bergdahl should be respected for putting on the military uniform and defending this country.

But respect has avoided the Army Sargent since his released from the Taliban and now,  Republican nuts are targeting Berghdal’s parents with death threats.

The FBI is investigating threats against the parents of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the latest development in a case that has put the spotlight on the circumstances surrounding his capture in Afghanistan and release by the Taliban.

“We are working jointly with our state and local partners and taking each threat seriously,” FBI Special Agent William Facer told CNN in an e-mail on Saturday.

Facer declined to detail the nature and severity of the threats, and a military spokesperson for the Bergdahls declined to comment.

Bergdahl’s parents have not been seen publicly since the announcement last week that the soldier had been freed from five years in captivity at the hands of the Taliban in exchange for the release of five detainees at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base.

Republican nuts. They love the troops!

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Featured News

PICTURED: The last living Chinese women with bound feet

 

More than 100 years after the centuries-old practice of foot binding was banned in China, these are some of the last living women who were subjected to the practice as children.

Once a symbol of beauty and status, foot binding, also known as lotus feet, was carried out in China since the 10th century, falling out of favour in the early 20th century before it was outlawed in 1911.

Now the last remaining women to have their feet painfully bound in order to prevent growth have been photographed as part of a photography project celebrating their lives.

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Status symbol: Once a symbol of beauty and status, foot binding, also known as lotus feet, was carried out in China since the 10th century, falling out of favour in the early 20th century before it was outlawed in 1911

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Portrait: Zhao Hua Hong is one of the women photographed by Hong Kong-based Jo Farrell who had their feet bound as a child in rural China

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Outlawed: The tradition of foot binding started during the Song Dynasty and was banned in 1911, although it continued in rural areas until around 1939

The pictures of women, now aged in their 80s and 90s after foot binding continued in rural areas until around 1939, were taken by Hong Kong-based photographer Jo Farrell, who has launched a Kickstarter fund to complete her project.

‘Although considered fairly barbaric, it was a tradition that enabled women to find a suitable partner,’ Ms Farrell explained on her Kickstarter page.

‘Match-makers or mother-in-laws required their son’s betrothed to have bound feet as a sign that she would be a good wife (she would be subservient and without complaint).

‘A tradition that started in the Song Dynasty, it was originally banned in 1911. It continued in rural areas until around 1939 whereupon women with bound feet had the bindings forcibly removed by government decree.

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Practice: The process was started when women were aged between four and nine before their feet were fully developed and was often carried out during the winter months when the girls’ feet would be numb from the cold

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Process: Feet were soaked in a warm mixture of herbs and animal blood to soften them and toenails were cut back as far as possible. The toes on each foot were curled backwards and then pressed downwards and squeezed into the sole of the foot until the toes broke

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Painful: The arch was then broken and the bandages wound around the foot, pressing the toes underneath. The feet would be unbound and washed regularly, when the feet would be kneaded to soften them and the bandages reapplied even tighter

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Inspiration: Ms Farrell described her subjects, including Yange Jinge as ‘the most amazing, kind, generous and compassionate women I have ever met’

‘The women in this project are now in their 80s and 90s.

‘In every culture there are forms of body modification that adhere to that cultures’ perception of beauty. From Botox, FGM, breast augmentation, scarring and tattooing, to rib removals, toe tucks and labrets.’

The women photographed are all peasant farmers living and working in rural areas, far away from the city life where foot binding was used as a display of social status, as wealthy women who did not need to work would have their feet bound.

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Status: The women photographed are all peasant farmers living and working in rural areas, far away from the city life where foot binding was used as a display of social status, as wealthy women who did not need to work would have their feet bound

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Desirable: Many young girls used foot binding because it was a mark of beauty and were was one of the main avenues for women to find a husband in China or marry into money

 

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Resource: Ms Farrell said she hoped that when completed her project would be a useful aid for anthropological studies, and could be used in museum exhibits

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Equivalent? Ms Farrell said that in every culture there are forms of body modification that adhere to that cultures’ perception of beauty, such as Botox, FGM, breast augmentation, scarring and tattooing, to rib removals, toe tucks and labrets

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Symbol of pride: Women, their families, and their husbands took great pride in tiny feet, with the ideal length, being around 2.75 inches

The process tended to be started when women were aged between four and nine, before their feet were fully developed and was often carried out during the winter months when the girls’ feet would be numb from the cold.

Feet were soaked in a warm mixture of herbs and animal blood to soften them and toenails were cut back as far as possible. The toes on each foot were curled backwards and then pressed downwards and squeezed into the sole of the foot until the toes broke.

The arch was then broken and the bandages wound around the foot, pressing the toes underneath.

The feet would be unbound and washed regularly, when the feet would be kneaded to soften them and the bandages reapplied even tighter.

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Damage: Many of the foot bones would remain broken for years, but would start to heal as the girl grew older. However they were still prone to repeatedly re-breaking, especially during teenage years when the girl’s feet were soft

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Risk: Since they could not balance securely, older women who had bound feet were less able to rise from a sitting position and were more likely to fall and break their hips and other bones

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Controversial: Many women who underwent foot binding were left with lasting disabilities, and missionaries working in China in the last 1800s said the practice should be banned to promote equality between men and women

Many women who underwent foot binding were left with lasting disabilities, and missionaries working in China in the last 1800s said the practice should be banned to promote equality between men and women.

Ms Farrell said she hoped that when completed her project would be a useful aid for anthropological studies, and could be used in museum exhibits.

‘This project documents and celebrates the lives of the last remaining women in China with bound feet,’ said Ms Farrell, who has spent the past eight years photographing the women.

‘In the past year alone, three of the women I have been documenting have died and I feel it is now imperative to focus on recording their lives before it is too late.’

She added: ‘These are some of the most amazing, kind, generous and compassionate women I have ever met.’

Read more: DailyMail

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Sports

Watch Evan Longoria’s Bare Handed Catch Saves Reporter’s Life

Reporters constantly live on the edge and at any moment, anything, even a baseball, could push them over the edge. But with bare handed stars like Evan Longoria standing inches away, no baseball will come by this reporter’s way.

Watch the bare handed catch that probably saved this reporter’s life.

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Education

Senior ready to experience New Haven from Yale perspective

Co-Op High senior Ade Ben-Falahuddin will attend Yale University in the fall after carrying a 4.72 GPA through high school. pcasolino@newhavenregister.com (Peter Casolino-New Haven Register)

NEW HAVEN >> Ade Ben-Salahuddin grew up around the sound of gunshots in New Haven, but when given the chance to attend a number of Ivy League schools, he decided to stay.

 

 

Ben-Salahuddin will attend Yale University this fall, turning down the likes of Princeton and Columbia in the process.

 

 

A senior at Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School, Ben-Salahuddin has maintained a 4.72 grade point average throughout high school and is an active jazz trumpet player. He was accepted to Princeton, Brown, Columbia, Wesleyan, Yale, Tuskegee, Amherst College, Connecticut College and the University of Connecticut.

 

 

“He’s my hero,” said Tariq Ben-Salahuddin, Ade Ben-Salahuddin’s father.

 

 

Tariq said his son has managed to always make the right decisions in a society where there are many opportunities for him to do the wrong thing.

 

 

“Personally,” Abe said, “it’s always been me wanting to just learn more and always being driven and nurtured to explore different options and become immersed in a lot of different cultures, be as open to the world as possible, while still retaining a focus on: you have to educate yourself.”

 

 

A Wesleyan graduate, Tariq Ben-Salahuddin said he and his wife have been in competition to see which school Ade Ben-Salahuddin would attend. His wife is a Yale graduate.

 

 

While Wesleyan’s acceptance letter arrived first, Tariq Ben-Salahuddin said he knew the game was over once the letter from Yale arrived.

 

 

Abe Ben-Salahuddin said when he began exploring colleges, he looked for a school that would allow him to pursue both music and biology. He said many of the Ivy Leagues presented themselves as “very strong candidates,” and that he considers the schools the “pinnacles of formal education.”

 

 

The senior visited Princeton and UConn before being won over by Yale’s Bulldog Days program in April — a three-day program offered to admitted Yale students to provide a sense of what it’s like to be a “Yalie.” The program pairs potential students with a student host and includes tours, meetings with undergraduate organizations and free time to explore downtown.

 

 

“It was just a really fun experience seeing New Haven from the perspective of a college student,” Ben-Salahuddin said. “Bulldog drove home that sense of community among Yale students.” As a city student, Ben-Salahuddin said he frequented downtown cafes with friends and noticed there was a lot to do, but only if you were college-aged. The fact that there was less to do for younger students initially was “off-putting” for Ben-Salahuddin.

 

 

“I actually couldn’t really picture myself staying here for another four years,” he said. “I said I was going to drive myself insane at some point.”

 

 

But after getting a taste of what the city feels like for a Yale student, and how inspired and inspiring the students are, Ben-Salahuddin’s perspective changed.

 

 

“A lot of people who go to the school are really passionate about what they want to learn and are trying to learn a lot of things at the same time, and are very active in the community,” he said. “A lot of really driven people, and I like to be around that sort of crowd because it pushes everybody toward their ultimate goals, whatever those might be.”

 

 

And in good company he’ll be.

Kwasi Enin, a Long Island teenager who was accepted to all eight Ivy League schools, also will be attending Yale this fall.

 

 

Ben-Salahuddin said he ran into Enin during a visit to Princeton and looks forward to having him as a colleague.

 

 

For youths coming behind him, Ben-Salahuddin offered a lesson on “self-worth” and suggested finding something positive for oneself and the community.

 

 

“Reject what the media perception of you is; if you continue to count that as a factor in how you judge and how you value yourself, then you’re not going to succeed in any substantial way,” he said.

 

 

It’s important to find something that’s both positive for you and for the community, and “to be role models for the generations that come after you,” he said.

 

 

As for the high school experience in New Haven, Ben-Salahuddin said it is what you make of it.

 

 

“The school system in general, the resources are there. As to how efficiently they’re being used, I cannot really say,” he said.

 

 

“I would stress to both parties, teachers and students, to really embrace the moment, seize every learning moment that you have,” he said.

 

 

Since 2010, the district’s dropout rate has fallen from 27.3 percent to 20.7 percent and the four-year graduation rate has increased from 62.5 percent to 71.4 percent. Also, the percentage of students enrolled in their first year of college has increased by 2 percentage points from 62 percent in 2010 to 64 percent in 2012. Only about half of the district’s graduates make it to the second year of college.

 

 

Ben-Salahuddin said there are a lot of resources and programs for students in the city but many are confined to specific schools. Ideally, he said, he would like to see more citywide programs for youth.

 

 

Ben-Salahuddin listed Nelson Mandela and South African trumpet player Hugh Masekela as role models because of their activism, and said his passion for science came from no particular scientist, but from the nature of the topic itself. While he is unsure of his exact focus of study, his eyes are set on evolutionary studies or possibly biomedical engineering.

 

 

As for whether or not Ben-Salahuddin will remain in New Haven post-college graduation, the aspiring researcher said it’s likely he will, but not forever.

 

 

“I’ve said to myself, well if you’ve made the commitment so far, and you’re already at Yale; Yale is one of the best research institutions in the country, if not the entire world so you shouldn’t close yourself off to it,” he said. “If opportunities do arise, I will certainly at least be open to it, though I would at some point want to expand beyond New Haven.”

 

h/t – nhregister

 

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Afghanistan Bowe Bergdahl Foreign Policies News Politics Terrorism

Deserter Storm

At this point, the only relevant question I can think of asking in the tale of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is this: If he was the son of a member of the U.S. Congress, would anybody be questioning his patriotism? Perhaps in this hyper-partisan atmosphere we have the answer might be yes, but I doubt it.

As more details emerge about Sgt. Bergdahl’s captivity, it’s becoming clearer to me that a large swath of our citizenry simply has not learned the lessons of the past and is too ready to jump on anything negative in a person’s background to deny them basic human rights. Yes, he had a habit of wandering when he shouldn’t have and, yes, U.S. soldiers were killed trying to find him. It is a tragedy that those soldiers died and their families have every right to be angry over the circumstances of their deaths. That should never have happened. This kind of thing happens in war. That’s why I hate it.

The worst, unfortunately, is yet to come. Sgt. Bergdahl will come home to a town and country that is deeply divided over whether he should have even been freed, much less traded for five suspected terrorists. He will be called terrible names in person and in the media by those who believe that they are the country’s moral arbiters. I have one word for them: Vietnam.

Last week I took my classes to the New Jersey Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial. It’s a trip that’s become a yearly ritual at my school, and this year it was even more valuable because it provided some historical relevance in light of Sgt. Bergdahl’s story. Vietnam veterans lead all of the tours and are available for discussion, question and answer periods, and explanations of some of the exhibits at the memorial and education center. To a man, and they were all men, they recounted their experiences as soldiers returning to a divided country in the 1960s and 1970s. They told us about being called baby killers, village burners, Nazis, fascists and murderers. They were young men, some who were drafted and some who enlisted, who saw it as their duty to fight for their country, and their country turned their back on them. Today, they are kind, thoughtful men who are proud to be grandfathers and are happy to tell the younger generation about their experiences.

I thought of Bowe Bergdahl. Not the Sergeant; just the young man, and what he faces in the near future. For the Vietnam veterans there was some strength in numbers. Bowe Bergdahl will face the country alone. John McCain met President Nixon as a hero. I hope that President Obama sticks to his position and does the same for Bergdahl. Yes, he made a terrible mistake which became a tragedy for some of his fellow soldiers. But to hang this whole tragedy on him would be a terrible mistake. Let’s hope that we haven’t forgotten the lessons of 40 years ago.

You want more? That’s easy. Simply go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

 

 

 

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Featured News

Suspect Accused Of Stabbing Brooklyn Children Says, “I Didn’t Do It”

While the seven-year-old girl who was brutally stabbed in an elevator last week remains hospitalized, her accused attacker is apparently proclaiming his innocence.

Mikayla Capers is at New York-Presbyterian, recovering from multiple stab wounds, and her aunt told the Post, “She has not talked about what happened… It is too soon right now.”

Last Sunday, just before 6 p.m., police say Daniel St. Hubert, 27, stabbed Capers and her cousin, Prince Joshua “P.J.” Avitto, 6, in a building elevator at the Boulevard Houses on Schenk Avenue in East New York. Both children, who were headed to get ices, were stabbed repeatedly. P.J. died from his wounds and was mourned at a funeral on Friday.

It’s also believed that St. Hubert is involved in the fatal May 30th stabbing of 18-year-old Tanaya Grant Copeland, also in East New York, and the June 4th stabbing of a man at the West 18th Street subway station in Manhattan. St. Hubert was found, after a huge police manhunt, in Queens on Thursday, scrawling “$ Killzz I will B” with a smiley face on a stop sign. He was carrying a knife.


Daniel St. Hubert in court (AP)

St. Hubert has numerous arrests and was just released on parole on May 23rd, after serving five years for choking his mother. He was transferred to Bellevue Hospital yesterday, and the Daily News reports:

[His sister Judith Perry] said he appeared lucid and only had one thing on his mind — clearing his name.

“I didn’t do it,” he told his sister.

“He’s managing,” said the 29-year-old Perry, who believes the city Department of Correction sent her brother to Bellevue because of his “documented mental illness.”
“He’s hanging on, but he says he can’t take this too long because he knows he’s innocent,” she said.

St. Hubert claimed the guards transporting him to the hospital abused him by banging his head against the wall and tightening the cuffs until they hurt him.

“His hand is swollen,” Perry said. “He doesn’t like the situation he’s in. He feels it’s unfair that they are … judging him guilty without even giving him a fair trial.”

However, police linked him to the crimes after finding his DNA at the crime scene. The Wall Street Journal reported, “The city Office of the Medical Examiner received the knife Sunday and spent about 36 hours processing the DNA—considered to be a fast turnaround, a second law-enforcement official said. The DNA lifted from the knife was uploaded into a state offender registry, the official said. A match was found on Wednesday and turned over to the NYPD.”

And Prince Joshua’s brother, Sharod Jean-Pierre, told the News, “[Hubert’s] still gonna be able to eat, sleep, talk to people. My little brother isn’t going to be able to do that anymore. I want him to stay at Rikers. I want him to suffer.”

h/t – gothamist

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Celebrities Music

Sir Mix-A-Lot Performs “Baby Got Back” with an Orchestra – Video

I bet you’ve never seen anything like this before. “Baby Got Back” with Sir Mix-A-Lot and the Seattle Symphony… and a whole lot of babies with backs and stuff.

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